Tag



15,1958 L'ETOILE K. MGFA'DDEN ETAL 2,842,878

- TAG Filed Feb. 7, 1956 I INVENTORK LETOILE K. McFADDEN KARL A. SPARKS BY WWW ATTORNEYS United States Patent TAG "LEtoile K. McFadden and Karl A. Sparks, Portland, Oreg.

Application February 7, 1956, Serial No. 563,906

1 Claim. (Cl. 40-21) The present invention comprises a tag which is of particular utility as a bed marker or patient identifier in hospitals. At the present time hospital beds may be identilied or tagged by clip boards, or slotted receptacles into which a card may be slipped, or by other means of a similar nature, all of which are expensive or diflicult to utilize. The present invention comprises a tag which is of such simple nature that a supply thereof may be carried in a nurses or doctors pocket, the appropriate identifying information written thereon and the card attached easily and quickly to the patients bed or to the knob of the door to the room in which the patient is placed. While the present invention is particularly designed for immediate and firm application to the foot rail of a hospital bed, it is to be appreciated that the tag may be otherwise used, such as by being attached to a coat button of an accident victim.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a tag which may be easily and economically formed and which will have a variety of useful applications. For example, the tag may be used in taking inventory of stock, to aid in routing fabrications through a manufacturing plant, or for any other purpose for which economical and readily applicable and removable tags are of utility.

The objects and advantages of the present invention may be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings and the following specification wherein a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated and described, and throughout which like numerals refer to like parts.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is an end view of a hospital bed having the present invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on an enlarged scale taken substantially along line 3--3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a similar view showing the present invention applied to a different form of bed rail;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of a bed rail having the present invention applied thereto; and

Fig. 6 is a view on a small scale of the present invention applied to a door knob.

Fig. 1 illustrates a typical hospital bed 10, including a foot rail 11 upon which has been mounted a tag 12 constructed in accordance with the present invention. The tag 12 is shown in Fig. 2, and preferably comprises a substantially rectangular body 13 which is preferably divided into three body portions 14, 15 and 16 and two end tabs by parallel, transversely extending folding creases 17, 18, 19 and 20. The opposite ends of the body 13 have a pair of tabs 21 and 22 extending therealong, the tabs being somewhat narrower than the body in the transverse direction of the card. The tab 21 is defined in part by a pair of inwardly extending, open notches 23 having square outer shoulders, and communicating, inwardly extending slits 24, the inner ends of the slits communicating substantially tangentially with a pair of perforations 25. The tab 22 is partially defined only by a pair of opposed, in-

' '2 Wardly extending, open notches 26. A rubber band 27, which when relaxed is slightly longer than twice the distance between perforation-s 25, is retained in association with the cardby engagement in the slits 24 so as to extend transversely of the card with a portion loosely overlying the obverse face of the card and a portion loosely overlying the reverse face of the card. The rubber 'band passes through the perforations 25 so that it may freely slide therethrough, but it will not become accidentally disassociated due to the tangential relation of the slits 24 to the perforations. The square shoulders of the notches 23 assist in the rapid application of the band to the card.

The obverse face of the card is preferably provided with a plurality of printed lines 28 upon which information may be written, each line preferably having printed indicia 29 adjacent thereto so that desired information will be uniformly written on all cards in accordance with the desires of the doctor, hospital manager, or other user of the card. The printed lines and indicia are preferably applied within the central portion 15 so as to be in a readily visible area of the card when applied to a bed or other object.

The card is shown as applied to a round bed rail 11 in Fig. 3. If the bed rail is quite large, the card may be simply wrapped in cylindrical fashion around the bed rail and held in position by passing either the front or rear portion of the rubber band 27 about the tab 22 for engagement in the notches 26. If the bed rail is smaller, the card may be partially folded as indicated in Fig. 3. It is preferred that the folding crease lines not weaken the structure of the card to any great extent so that the card will retain a generally rectangular shape as illustrated whereby to exert force against the rubber band so that the card will be frictionally retained in the position illustrated in Fig. 1. The card is preferably so proportioned that in most instances the rubber band will be stretched to some extent and will frictionally engage a portion of the surface of the bed rail so as to act as a frictional retainer to maintain the card in the desired position.

The card is illustrated as applied to a rectangular bed rail 35 in Fig. 4. A large number of hospital beds are provided with rectangular rails of almost uniform size, and the panels 14, 15 and 16 are proportioned so as to snugly overlie three sides of such a bed rail. However, it will be appreciated that the card can be applied to any rail normally encountered.

In Fig. 6 the card 12 is illustrated as mounted upon a door 31 simply by stretching the rubber band 27 and slipping it over the door knob 32. It will be obvious that the card may be applied to any object having a protruding knob, handle or other retaining means, such as by forming a slip knot in a loop of the rubber band and tightening it about the threads connecting a button to a wearers coat.

Having illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of our invention We claim as our invention all such modifications in detail and arrangement as come within the true spirit and scope of the following claim.

We claim:

A hospital bed marking tag particularly adapted to be applied to a bed rail, comprising a body panel of generally elongated rectangular configuration, and a pair of integral tabs extending respectively from the opposed ends of said body panel, each of said tabs being narrower than said body panel and having a length considerably less than its Width, one of said tabs being partially defined by a pair of laterally opposed, inwardly extending, open notches, closed slits extending inwardly from said notches, and perforations at the inner ends of said silts, and a resilient, endless band respectively engaged in said perforations and being more or less permanently connected to said tag by virtue of said closed slits, the other of said tabs being partially defined by a second pair of laterally opposed, inwardly extending notches closed at their inner ends, the last mentioned notches being open and extending somewhat longitudinally in a direction away from the body of the panel to provide projections on the end of said other of said tabs, said projections extending toward the body of said panel so that the rubber band may be connected to said other of said tabs around the projection thereof in a more or less temporary manner enabling the band to be readily removed from said other of said tabs while maintaining its connection with the tag, said perforations being of greater diameter than the diameter of said band whereby the band may freely slide therethrough 4 when in relaxed condition, said band when in relaxed condition having a length just slightly more than twice the distance between said perforations, and said panel being subdivided into a plurality of rectangular portions by parallel, transverse folding creases.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,840,022 Cobbs Ian. 5, 1932 2,094,210 Graben Sept. 18, 1937 2,201,139 Ivey May 21, 1940 2,669,047 Rieger Feb. 16, 1954 

